Things Better Overlooked
by dget
Summary: Mai's wedding to the Fire Lord is only five days away, and her family and friends are arriving for the big ceremony. This really shouldn't stress her out the way it does. Maiko, but not romance-centric.
1. Chapter 1

It was five days before the wedding. Mai was sitting out on her private balcony, worried, but not for the reasons one might think. Certainly, the vows she would be required to recite were complex and difficult to memorize; and yes, her ceremonial robes were likely to arrive from alterations at the very last possible minute; and there was also the matter of the number of beautiful wedding gifts currently pouring into the palace, each of which required acknowledgement and participation in a delicate game of reciprocation – but Mai was a noblewoman by birth, groomed for her station; she had been training for court life since she was knee-high. She was prepared to deal with these matters. No, Mai was worried because her family was coming to town.

Mai's family had been supporters of the old regime, and here Mai was marrying into the new regime. It wasn't that her family was displeased with her or disappointed in her – on the contrary, it was what she had been raised for. Her mother had apparently become hysterical with joy when she had received the news of her daughter's impending nuptials.

Mai knew in her heart that her family was more loyal to the crown than to the actual fire lord, as many nobles were, and to her this was a source of both relief and shame. It was the reason her family had accepted Zuko so quickly – but it was also the reason they had gone along with Ozai's tyrannical reign. Hell, it was part of the reason she herself had followed Azula halfway across the globe. Zuko knew this, and accepted it. He had made his mistakes, she had made hers. In the end, it was their choices that really mattered; Zuko had chosen to fight for the Avatar, and she had chosen to fight for Zuko.

But the Avatar and his friends had yet to meet her family. Her fiancée's former prey and current friends had very little concept of loyalty as it was viewed in the Fire Nation. And she knew, based on her limited interactions with them, that all in the group were owners of strong moral systems and an even stronger dislike of Ozai.

And this worried her. Because Mai – prideful, aloof, disinterested Mai – desperately wanted the gang to like her. She didn't want them to simply accept her because she was Zuko's intended – she genuinely wanted to be a part of the easy friendship the group seemed to share. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Toph, Suki, and Zuko truly cared for one another in a way that Mai, as unlikely as she was to ever admit it, envied. She had grown up with playmates strategically selected to advance her social and political standing – aside from her friendship with Ty Lee or her romance with Zuko, Mai doubted that she had ever known people who simply liked her for who she was and nothing more. She'd never really been close to anyone who hadn't _wanted _something from her; she'd never spent time with people whom she could trust with her self - and so she had kept her emotions concealed like the knives on her body, lest the Azulas of the world use them against her.

So Mai was anxious to make a good impression with Team Avatar. And that required that the group overlook her clan's past complacency with the Fire Nation's crimes – which was unlikely to happen if her family was not on its very best behavior. Although not a flicker of emotion passed over her features as she sat in the bright sunlight, Mai cringed internally at the mental image of her exuberant mother, flushed with drink from the celebratory banquet, bringing up some family history that all present would rather forget.

Tonight, both the Avatar's group and her own family were scheduled to arrive at the palace to aid with last-minute wedding preparations. As she searched both the sky and the sea from her perch on the balcony, Mai prayed to Agni that her family would not ruin this chance.

**Author's Notes: **My headcanon is that Mai and Zuko get married only a few short years after he is crowned Fire Lord. The members of the Gaang have headed in their various directions, and everyone is keeping busy… so basically, the wedding is the first time everyone's really been in the same place at the same time since Ba Sing Se. Sure, Mai has seen nearly everybody at some point or another, and she gets along with them just fine – Suki's spent some time with the palace guard, and whenever Sokka's in the area he stops by (probably for the palace grub more than anything), and Aang and Katara have been present for peace talks – but the wedding will be the first real reunion, and Mai wants to feel like she is a part of the group. She, like Zuko, still feels like she hasn't quite made up for her family's mistakes. (Although her family never really did anything that horrible, Mai has come to believe that being a passive bystander in the face of atrocities is its own special brand of evil.) So Mai foresees some tense situations, and is worried that her family might compromise her image in the Gaang's eyes.

I'm planning to continue this for a couple more chapters, at least. Please review, I welcome criticism! And thanks for reading


	2. Chapter 2

"Mai! Darling!" Mai's mother threw her arms around her daughter's neck. As Mai reluctantly returned the embrace, she wondered how a woman as exuberant as her mother had managed to raise a daughter as stoic as herself.

"Hi, Mom," Mai sighed. She glanced at her father and brother over her mother's shoulder. "How was the trip from Omashu?"

"Fine," replied her mother, though Mai noticed a certain green tint to her father's face that contradicted his wife's quick answer. "It seemed so very short! But I suppose that might have simply been my excitement at returning to the homeland." She let Mai go after giving her one last squeeze, and Mai went to greet her father and brother.

"You know," Mai said, picking up Tom Tom and placing him on her hip, "you don't have to stay in Omashu. You could come live here." She cringed internally at the thought as she kissed her father's cheek. Tom Tom, eager to draw his sister's attention back to himself, let out an earsplitting shriek, and then Mai was cringing externally as well. "Well, little brother, you've certainly gotten… _loud_," she said to him. "And heavy," she added, grunting slightly as she shifted his weight to her other hip.

"Where's your betrothed?" Her mother asked, peering about. "I had rather hoped he might be here to greet us."

Mai rolled her eyes. "Mom, Zuko is the Fire Lord. He's busy; he doesn't have time to do things like come down to the docks himself." Mai saw the line of her father's mouth tighten. "But he sent palanquins for you, and people to help with your luggage," she added. "You'll see him at dinner tomorrow evening… probably."

"Well, I suppose I should be grateful that the Fire Lord will be gracing us with his royal presence at all," her father grumbled, while her mother looked disappointed.

Mai sighed. The last time her family had been in the homeland, they had been favored nobles in Ozai's court. It would take them a while to stop expecting special treatment.

Suddenly, a loud roar could be heard from overhead; the noise of happy shouting followed soon after. A small smile appeared on Mai's lips.

"That will be the Avatar's party arriving," Mai announced brusquely, placing Tom Tom on his feet. "Excuse me, Mother, Father, I must go greet them." And with a short, dismissive bow to each parent and a brief pat on her brother's head, Mai was gone, striding off toward the furry beast where it had landed on the shore, her smile growing infinitesimally as she approached.

"Mai!" The Avatar was the first to spot her, leaping down gracefully from the bison. "It's good to see you!" He greeted the soon-to-be Fire Lady with a deep and proper bow, and then, Aang being Aang, pulled her in for a quick hug. Strangely, Mai couldn't find it in herself to mind. Soon, she was surrounded, as Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Suki converged on her to offer greetings and congratulations.

After a bit, Suki raised a question. "What are you even doing down here, Mai? It's not that we're not glad to see you! -we just weren't expecting you."

"Yeah," Katara added. "I mean, your wedding is only four days away! You must have so much to do!"

Mai laughed humorlessly. "Oh, believe me; I have a lot to do. But my family's just arrived, so I came down here to meet them," she said nonchalantly.

Aang's eyes widened, doubtlessly with the memory of his lone previous encounter with her kin. "Oh. Well, should we go say hi? You can introduce us to them and then we can all head up to the palace together?" The Avatar's words seemed to be more question than suggestion as he looked past her to where her family's belongings were being unloaded.

"No," Mai said, dismissively and forcefully. "Your bison is probably tired; we should get him up to the stables. Besides, you'll meet my family at dinner tomorrow night."

And so it was that the group departed the docks with a roar and a rush of wind, as Mai peered over the edge of the saddle to watch the silhouetted figures of her family tilt their necks up blindly to the night sky. They grew smaller and smaller in their pool of lamplight until at last, with a sigh, Mai turned around to face her destination: the palace.

**Author's Notes: **Mai loves her family, she really does. She's just stressed right now.

Also, Mai will probably never learn to refer to the Avatar's flying furry monstrosity by its name, no matter how many times Aang reminds her that "it" is called Aapa. XD

Please review, I welcome criticism! And thank you for reading; I seriously love you for even just looking at this page.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, Mai found her concentration broken by a soft knock at her door. She looked up from her papers with a slight scowl on her face. "Zuko, what did I tell you about-" her words broke off as the door slid open to reveal Katara, Toph, Suki and Ty Lee, all huddled together with expressions ranging from pure excitement (Ty Lee) to self-satisfaction (Toph). Mai was immediately on high alert –experience had taught her to worry when Ty Lee looked like that, and she also had a sneaking suspicion that the expression on Toph's face did not bode well for anyone the petite earthbender faced while wearing it. "Oh, hi guys." She rose from her cushion and walked over to the door. "Sorry, I thought you were Zuko. He always insists on barging in here like he owns the place. Which, technically, he does," she shrugged, "but since I'm still staying in the guest wing you'd think he'd respect the space."

"Well, I guess Zuko always did have a problem with personal space," Katara smiled. "No surprise there. But I'm sure it must be stressful to have him distracting you when you have so much to do."

Mai did not point out that the four girls were currently doing just that. "I guess," she said noncommittally.

"…Which is why we were wondering if we could help you!" Ty Lee announced. Oh no. "There must be somethings you can delegate. You can't do it _all _by yourself. And just think, it would go so much more quickly with five of us working!" The acrobat grinned, and for a moment Mai resented her oldest friend for making the proposition sound so simple and hard to refuse.

The future Fire Lady let out a breath as she quickly thought of a way out of the situation. "Thanks, but I can't let you do that. You're here for the wedding, and I wouldn't exactly be a good hostess if I put you to work."

Toph chose this moment to speak up. "Then it's a good thing we're here as your friends, not guests, eh, Mrs. Sparky?" the blind girl asked, tossing a friendly punch as she elbowed her way past Mai into the room.

Mai blinked, surprised. _Friends? _she wanted to ask. She felt as though she had hardly ever even spoken with Toph. But what came out of her mouth instead was, "Mrs. Sparky?"

"Eh, you're right. It doesn't really sound right, does it? Must be because you're not actually married to Sparky yet." And with that, Toph plopped down on a cushion and propped her bare feet up on the table. She stared vacantly around the room that Mai had taken over as a temporary office of sorts as the other girls filed in and seated themselves as well. Soon Mai found herself standing at the center of a half-circle of expectant faces.

With a sigh, Mai resigned herself to allowing the girls to help her. She could certainly use it, after all. And wasn't she trying to bond with these people? Hadn't her spirits lifted just a moment ago, when the earthbender called her a friend? Yes, Mai decided, if these girls were her friends, she'd have to be more than simply polite and distant to them. She'd have to let them into her world.

Not that they were giving her much choice in the matter, anyways.

She walked around behind the table that was currently serving as her desk and sank down to the cushion she had been occupying before the interruption. The girls' gazes – excepting Toph's – followed her. Silence reigned for a moment.

Suki was the one to break it. "So what are all those papers for anyways, Mai?"

_Let them in, let them in, _she was chanting in her head. _These girls are not Azula. You want them to be your friends. They want to help you. Let them in._

Mai pursed her lips slightly. "There are a couple of different things here. These are the words I'll need to have memorized for the ceremony-" here Mai held up a long scroll – "and these are the thank-you letters I've already started on, since they'll be difficult to do once I've assumed full Fire Lady duties. Some of this pile-" here she indicated a stack on the side – "is regarding the Fire Lady duties I've already begun. Social work, helping the people; that sort of stuff is the Fire Lady's job," Mai added for the benefit of the non- Fire Nation natives. "I took some of it on early to get it off of Zuko's back. Agni knows he has enough to worry about. And this-" here Mai patted the largest scroll – "is my to-do list." She sighed, folding her hands in her lap. "And it just keeps getting longer."

"Well, it's a good thing we're here then!" Katara exclaimed, sitting up a little straighter. "Where do you want us to start?"

"Well…" Mai cast about. An idea struck her. "Actually," she said, untying a knife holster from her left forearm, "I'll need someone to go and convince the royal tailors to make room for _this _underneath my ceremonial robes."

"I'll do it," Toph volunteered quickly. "I wouldn't be much help with the paper stuff, but I can be very… _convincing… _when necessary," she added with a wicked smile and a crack of her knuckles.

Mai found herself returning the smile as she handed the holster to Toph. The crass girl was growing on her quickly. "You might need to go to the Fire Sages for approval… it's fairly unconventional for the bride to be armed at a royal wedding, I guess. But bonus points if you can get them to agree to a holster for my right arm as well."

"Bonus points?" Toph asked slyly.

"We can work out what exactly that means later," Mai promised, arms crossed. "_If _you can do it. The Fire Sages cling to their traditions harder than a baby rabiroo clings to its mother," she explained, eyebrow quirked.

"Ah, a challenge. I see. Don't worry, I'll figure out a good way for you to pay me those points," Toph grinned as she departed. "See ya later, Mrs. Sparky!"

Mai turned back around to see Suki, Katara, and Ty Lee staring at her. "What?"

"It… just… it's a dangerous thing to challenge Toph," Katara said.

"Yeah, who knows what she'll end up making you do for payment!" Suki exclaimed, laughing. "Public humiliation is her favorite currency, just wait and see. One time, she made Sokka serenade the Northern Water Tribe representatives with a tavern song in the middle of an important meeting… you should have seen their faces when he started singing about lady parts!"

The Kyoshi warrior dissolved into snorts, and Ty Lee was giggling so hard she was holding her stomach. Katara merely had a hand to her eyes and was shaking her head, although Mai swore that the waterbender's back was convulsing with repressed laughter. Even she had to break a smile at the thought.

Soon enough, Katara was looking over the to-do list as Suki began drilling Mai on her incredibly lengthy wedding vows. Meanwhile, Ty Lee was pushing furniture around the room with the insistence that it would improve the room's energy and help Mai's ability to focus. Mai smiled inwardly.

Maybe she was worrying too much. Maybe a friendship with these young women wasn't something that would be affected by her family's history. Maybe everything would be just fine after all, and dinner that night would pass without incident.

Then again, maybe not.

**Author's Notes: **We'll just have to see what dinner brings, hm? :D Thank you so much for reading! A:TLA/LoK is seriously the best fandom out there. I love you guys.

I had a little bit of trouble with this chapter. I feel like Mai might be a little bit out of character here. So… reviews and criticisms are always appreciated… but they're *extra* appreciated for this chapter, as I may be altering it slightly in the future.


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